Niles FOP arson case ends with prison term

Second man sentenced to 32 months for crimes.

July 18, 2012|By DEBRA HAIGHT | South Bend Tribune Correspondent

NILES -- Dumb and dumber or dumbest and dumbest. Those were the assessments from Berrien County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Travis and Berrien County Trial Judge Dennis Wiley of two area young men who set a vehicle on fire and rolled it down the hill to the Niles F.O.P. lodge which then burned.

The second of the two young men was sentenced Wednesday. Gary Lee Nellans II, 26, of Hollyhock in South Bend, will be spending the next 32 months in prison after pleading guilty to two arson counts, two unlawful driving away of a vehicle counts and one count of breaking and entering a vehicle to steal property.

Nellans' total sentence was 32 months in prison for arson of real property and four terms of 23 months for arson of personal property and the two unlawful driving away of a vehicle charges. He was given a 90 day jail term on the breaking and entering charge. All terms are concurrent.Wiley also ordered Nellans to pay $2,452 in fines and costs with restitution to be determined later.

Advertisement

Nellans' co-defendant, Kyle Allen Kelley, of Niles, was sentenced to 66 months in prison last week for the same charges. His sentence was greater because he already has seven other felony convictions for a 2011 crime spree in Cass County. Nellans' past record contains only misdemeanors.

The F.O.P. fire occurred in the early morning hours of March 14. Police first responded to a traffic accident around 4:24 a.m. involving a stolen vehicle. Less than an hour later, officers and fire personnel responded to the F.O.P. fire on North State Street. A burned vehicle found at the F.O.P. lodge was also stolen earlier that morning from another location in the city.

"Over 30 firefighters risked their lives to put out the fire at the F.O.P. lodge," Wiley told Nellans. "It's not a matter of 'Dumb and Dumber' but of 'Dumbest and Dumbest'."

"You stole and wrecked a car and then you decided to steal another car," he said. "Then to cover up your misdeeds you had the great idea to torch the car and send it down the hill so the F.O.P. lodge catches fire."

Wiley noted that while other young people his age are serving their country and being killed or seriously injured, Nellans has been "a complete and total failure." "What you have done in your life is zip, zero, nada," he said. "With this, you wanted Mr. Kelley to take the blame for it. That shows me what a spineless person you are."

"You have set about having a life based upon alcohol, partying and misbehaving," the judge told Nellans as he pointed out his past criminal record going back to when he was a juvenile that includes at least two drunk driving and three minor in possession of alcohol charges.

Nellans apologized to the court and to his family. "I know I made a huge mistake, I'll do whatever it takes to repay the community,"he said. "I'm sorry that I shamed and embarrassed my family and friends."

While Nellans and his attorney, Peter Johnson, tried to portray Kelley as the ringleader in their crime spree and asked for probation and a local jail term, Travis said that at age 19, Kelley was "not corrupting the morals of a 26 year old."

"Each one made their own decisions and Mr. Nellans continues to make bad decisions that he can't blame on Mr. Kelley," she said. "This situation is like the movie 'Dumb and Dumber' with each one making dumb decisions."

She noted that Nellans wrote Kelley a letter from jail saying that he would take care of the snitch who turned them in if Kelley took responsibility for the arson. "He still doesn't get it, he's still trying to get someone else to take the blame," she said. "It's to the point that he cannot blame the alcohol, he has to blame himself."